REPORT: Red States Have Most Economic Potential

A new study from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ranked all 50 states for their economic potential, and surprise! Virtually all of the top ten were states that voted for the GOP.

The study, called “Red States, Poor States” was the sixth in a continuing series from ALEC, and rated the states using 15 factors, some of which were minimum wage laws, labor policies, and rates of taxation. The top of the list was Utah.

ALEC’s Jonathan Williams said, “The real key to Utah is low tax rates, but more than that a predictable tax climate. Utah legislators are very conscientious about the fact that they don’t spend beyond their means and also they don’t make changes in tax policy retroactively. They make changes very gradually and they generally make them in a lower tax direction.”

Williams added that the worst ten states were more likely high-tax “blue” states which had stringent restrictions on businesses.

According to the ALEC study, the state with the greatest economic growth from 2001-2011 was Texas, and the worst was Michigan. The numbers for growth were derived from the states’ job growth, gross state product growth, and population shifts. Williams said that the study did not include data from natural resources, weather and social policies.